A person starts to live when he can live outside himself

Peak Hours Prohibition

I stay in the South of Johannesburg and work in Midrand, and for me to travel to and from work I have to drive either on the N1, M1 or N12/N3 five days a week. My concern has always been the horse and trailer trucks that we share the roads with, especially on the N3; this influenced my decision to always try to avoid the N3 at all times unless I have no choice but use the road.

I assume the drivers of these trucks own private cars and yet they seem to forget or disregard the fact that when they are driving their big trucks, maneuvering these big vehicles in traffic affects other users and adds onto the burden caused by everyone rushing to work. Unlike all the other smaller cars, trucks take time to adjust the speed they may be travelling; no matter whether they decide to increase or decrease. When changing lanes, it takes these heavy vehicles, to move from one lane to another more time compared to smaller cars.

After the N1 road accident on the 04 March 2013, I said a prayer and thanked the lord I was not already on the road; asked the all mighty to strengthen the families that lost family members and to give strength to those affected.
So, on 05 March 2013 I decided to use the N3 since the M1 was packed and that would possibly affect the time I would arrive at work. I passed the Van Buuren off-ramp, just under the Kloof Rd Bridge. There they were 3 trucks; one ploughed into a private car which was driving in the middle lane, and about 250m further there were 2 twelve wheeler trucks which collided with each other, one was on the third lane and the other on the forth.

At least at the N3 accident, it seems there were no fatalities and fewer lanes were affected. I am in no way claiming that only trucks cause accidents, but we should take into consideration the size of these vehicles and the impact they have on the smooth running of traffic and fatalities should they be involved in an accident.

I suggest a law that once existed that prohibited these big trucks from using the main roads during certain times should be reinstated with immediate effect. I am sure this will have a huge impact on the current traffic volumes compared to the suggested e-toll system, which will after a time be ineffective once people get used to paying the suggested high charges.

SANRAL and Gauteng Traffic Police should work together on having this law reinstated and enforced at all times. The heavy vehicles should be prohibited from driving on the main highways [N1, N3, N4, N12, N17, M1 and M2] during peak hours [6am to 9am and 4pm to 6pm].

The reason I am suggesting this law is because the drivers have proved to be unable to follow the rules of the road and stay in the slow lane to allow smaller vehicles travelling at higher speeds to pass. They continuously insist to change lanes even when they see that there is a smaller car approaching on the faster lane.